Reply To: Transitioning while working

[Lauren Mugnaia]

Hi Cynthia, I transitioned MTF while working, and I’m still involved as the process continues. After working at the same location for over 4 years I had a pretty good feel of where the people were at and felt it was safe to come out to them as being transgender. The response was, happily for me, overwhelmingly positive, and I was very pleased by how many had responded. With that knowledge I then asked if it would be okay for me to transition to Lauren while working on the job. Again, the response was amazingly positive, almost unanimous, YES!! All I needed was some idea of how and when. Several ladies from the admin staff came and asked me what I was going to do on March 31st, to which I replied, “what’s happening on that date? They informed me that day was the “Transgender Day of Visibility”, and that I’d better be there – enfemme! So I then proceeded to go talk to the managers of each department, letting them know what was taking place, and could they email the staff informing them of what I was doing. On March 31st I arrived at my desk fully dressed as a female, the emails had been sent out, informing everyone that my name was now Lauren and my pronouns were now ‘she’ and ‘her’.
This was all taking place at the end of Covid so many staff had been working from home, so as they’ve been returning they’ve been introduced to a “new person” at my desk, which is why I said the process is still continuing. It has been almost three months since I transitioned and debuted. I have been accepted, affirmed and welcomed, told how brave and courageous I am, and how much my coming out has meant to many staff members who now feel encouraged to ‘come out” themselves. The story continues.